Summer Reading Recommendations
I start summer vacation at 11:59 am tomorrow. I’m obviously looking forward to it! I'm also looking forward to all the time I will have to read. And with a long flight to the U.S. coming up – I live...
Best Books of 2017
I’m increasingly coming around to the opinion that when the stress of lesson planning, grading, and IB deadlines pile up, instead of worrying about it all, I should just read more. It calms me. It’s...
Summer Break Reading
Summer is a great time to catch up on your reading. If you are in the Northern Hemisphere – and we realize not all of our subscribers are – you will most likely have an extended break coming up if you...
Welcome to the InThinking Family
When I began here at InThinking, I wrote a blog post introducing myself through an ice-cream metaphor. I’m the second scoop in your InThinking Language and Literature bowl. A bit of strawberry compliments...
Curriculum Change: 2019
Last month (in April 2017), the IB published a ‘second report to teachers’ outlining the Language A: Language and Literature curriculum review that is currently ongoing. The review document is available...
The Walls That Divide Us
I have many memories of walls. My earliest of these memories is in the garden of our recently built terraced house. The terrace parallels another terrace, which parallels another. And so on. This is the...
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Best Books of 2016
The past six months have reminded me why I love stories so much: they’ve been a great escape from real life. With the U.S. presidential election dominating almost everything - my posts here at InThinking,...
President Trump: Like?
Last week, the day after the US presidential election, I wrote a piece on Donald Trump’s victory. By the time I had written it, I had been confronted by a gloating, baiting student (ultimately, remaining...
Language and Nature
I had an uncanny experience. It is many years since – this was the late 1990s – and the detail has become a little muddled. The essence of the story is this: I was sitting at home alone early on a Friday...
Flagging the Homeland Daily
A recent article in The Economist (‘Drawbridges up’, July 30th 2016) highlights a key ideological tension of our contemporary world. It is a world, the article suggests, that pits openness, internationalism,...